A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the photocopy reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure in exactly the form it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
The present invention relates in general to a gaming device, and more particularly to a gaming device having a bonus round with multiple selection groups, wherein each group includes a plurality of awards producing selections.
Gaming machines currently exist with bonus rounds in which a player has one or more opportunities to choose bonus awards that are initially masked from a group of symbols arranged in a pattern displayed to the player. When the player chooses a masked symbol from the pattern, the game removes the mask and either reveals (or awards) the player with a bonus value or reveals a bonus terminator which terminates the bonus round. The outcome depends upon whether the player picks an award or terminator. The controller of the gaming machine randomly places a predetermined number of bonus awards and bonus terminators in the pattern at the beginning of the bonus round and maintains the positioning until the bonus round terminates.
When the player picks a symbol that awards a bonus value, the player receives bonus credits and the bonus round typically displays a message that the player may continue and enables the player to pick another symbol. The player then picks another masked symbol, and the process continues until the player picks a bonus round terminator. European Patent Application No. EP 0 945 837 A2 filed on Mar. 18, 1999 and assigned on its face to WMS Gaming, Inc. discloses a bonus round of this type.
To increase player enjoyment and excitement, it is desirable to provide players with new bonus rounds where the players have multiple opportunities to receive winning payouts. In particular, it is desirable to provide players with opportunities to receive awards from multiple levels of the bonus round or from multiple groups of awards, wherein the multiple levels and multiple groups form a theme that provides entertainment and excitement to the player.
The present invention overcomes the above shortcomings by providing a bonus round that contains a plurality of selection groups (hereinafter collectively referred to as xe2x80x9cselection groupsxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cgroupsxe2x80x9d or individually referred to as a xe2x80x9cselection groupxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cgroupxe2x80x9d). Each group has a plurality of selections. The game provides the player with a number of picks or choices in each group which is preferably less than the number of selections in each group. The game preferably displays one screen on a video monitor that contains the groups. The present invention preferably does not include terminating symbols and has or contains a theme that ties or relates each of the selections, groups and screens together. The game preferably includes audio and visual displays (in accordance with the theme) that either direct or follow along with the player""s progress of the bonus round.
More specifically, the game enables the player to pick a predetermined number of the selections from each group. When the player picks a selection, the game preferably stores the pick for a subsequent revealing of the award associated with the chosen selection.
In an alternative embodiment, the game removes the indicia of the selection and uncovers an award associated with said selection. As the player makes the picks, the game tallies the awards. The awards are either gaming device credits or multipliers that are multiplied by an amount that the player has bet yielding a number of gaming device credits. Before switching screens or at the end of a round, the game preferably removes the indicia of the picked or chosen selections and shows the player a total award.
In the preferred embodiment, the game directs the player through the bonus round and designates the group from which the player is currently enabled to pick. When the player exhausts the picks from a group, the game directs the player to another group and so on through each group in the screen (and if there are multiple screens, from each screen of the round) until no more picks exist.
In the preferred embodiment wherein the displays follow a player""s progress through the round, the game enables the player to pick from each group in a screen, the game monitors the picks, and the audio-visual displays inform the player when a particular group is exhausted, so that the player can pick from another group. The game so informs the player until the player picks from each group in the screen (and if there are multiple screens, from each screen in the round) until no more picks exist.
In both embodiments described above, the game preferably reveals the awards of the selections not picked by the player when the game displays the awards. Revealing the awards for the selections that the player does not pick increases player excitement and enjoyment by showing the player lost opportunities and the player""s relative success or failure in the bonus round.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a gaming device with a bonus round that provides multiple groups, wherein each group has a plurality of selections, a predetermined number of which the player can pick to receive awards.
Another object of the present invention is to provide multiple groups of awards, wherein the multiple levels and multiple groups form a theme that provides entertainment and excitement to the player.
Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed disclosure, taken in conjunction with the accompanying sheets of drawings, wherein like numerals refer to like parts, elements, components, steps and processes.